Gods Unchained: Three Key Takeaways from POY Matches

The 2022 Player of the Year matches were played over the past week with Caution coming out on top as the best player of the year. It was really enlightening to watch these matchups and see how the best of the best play their decks. It is easy to possibly shrug off any learning opportunities for these matchups because they all play with high cost cards such as demogorgons or avatar legendaries. That would be a wrong assessment however as I picked up on three pearls to take forward with my matchups. If anyone is interested in seeing caution's winning deck, here is the GU deck code for it: GU_1_5_KCyHAFCCOCCOBCeBCeCAvCAvBCCBCCBCzCBxCBxLAKLAKGAlCAsLALLALIDOIDOKBQKBQKDlCDfCDfBBqBBqLAMGAv

1. Time is your friend

Most of the matches I watched over the past few days all the players took almost the full time each turn to make their play. This came back to bite them a couple times however nothing that was game altering really. That is something I rarely do as I have my win condition and play it no matter my opponent and their win condition. These players did a great job of taking their time with their plays and always thinking ahead which we will highlight in the next tip. By the time the mid to late game came, every player took until the cord appeared as each turn was critical to their success or failure. In summary, avoid the fear of clocking out and make sure your move is calculated and anticipatory.

2. Know your opponent's win condition and counters

All high level players including the streamers SamBee and Copper Pitch know the important cards and moments in the match. In this format, all players know their opponent's decks and what cards they have in them. You can do that somewhat in ranked matchups however it is not really needed along as you are aware of the meta cards and win conditions. For example, knowing that rapture dance for deception is coming against your wide aggro board is important to not completely change the trajectory of the match. Another thing I saw was slow plays from a few matches where they could have brought the heavy hitters like thaeriel out but decided to wait to sniff out counter cards from their opponent. This ensured their win condition and avoided a change in momentum.

3. Cheap cards can win games at the highest level

My favorite thing I saw in the matchups during the tournament was that cheap cards are imperative to certain win conditions and deck archetypes. I saw Clutch completely smoke his opponent using hidden rush deception by getting a shadow of lethanon out along with a dark knives. That is about a $20 combo which is relatively cheap for a powerful combo such as that. Another thing I saw played was a shadow scryer making the difference for Caution in one of his final matchups. This card allowed him to not draw useless cards and eventually get him to the win. For a two dollar card to make the difference in a finals match, just shows that any card can have it's moment in the sun depending on the deck and card draw.

It was really enlightening to follow along with these matchups and see the playstyle of the players as well as hear the commentary. There is always value garnered from watching others play and for any new players this would be my biggest tip for them. Grab a twitch or youtube streamer that plays your kind of deck and see how they play it successfully to learn how you get to your deck win conditions.